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British Republic
|largest_city = |official_languages = |religion = |demonym = British · Briton |ethnic_groups = 87% White 7% Asian 3% Black 2% Mixed 1% Other |government_type = |leader_title1 = President |leader_name1 = Daniel Corbyn |leader_title2 = Prime Minister |leader_name2 = Theresa Cameron |leader_title3 = President of the Parliament |leader_name3 = Jonathan Cromwell |legislature = Parliament |upper_house = National Assembly |lower_house = Regional Assembly |sovereignty_type = Formation |established_event1 = Laws in Wales Acts |established_date1 = 1535 and 1542 |established_event2 = Commonwealth established |established_date2 = 1649 |established_event3 = Republic established |established_date3 = September 23, 1792 |established_event4 = ECC Ascension |established_date4 = January 1, 1973 |established_event5 = Current constitution |established_date5 = March 13, 1973 |area_km2 = 242,495 |percent_water = 1.34 |population_census_year = 2011 |population_census = 63,181,775 |population_estimate_year = 2016 |population_estimate = 65,648,000 |population_density_km2 = 255.6 |GDP_PPP = $2.79 trillion |GDP_PPP_year = 2016 |GDP_PPP_per_capita = $42,518 |GDP_nominal = $2.68 trillion |GDP_nominal_year = 2016 |GDP_nominal_per_capita = $42,848 |currency = (EUR) |currency_code = £ |Gini_year = 2014 |Gini = 31.9 |HDI_year = 2015 |HDI = 0.908 |time_zone = |utc_offset = +0 |utc_offset_DST = +1 |time_zone_DST = |drives_on = left |cctld = .gb |calling_code = +44 |patron_saint = (England) (Scotland) (Wales) (Northern Ireland) }} The United Republic of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the British Republic (BR), or Britain, is a sovereign country located in western Europe. Lying off the northern-west coast of mainland Europe, the British Republic includes the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands. Northern Ireland remains part of the British Republic and is the only part of the island of Ireland that remains under British control and shares borders with the neighboring state of the Republic of Ireland. Beyond the land border, the British Republic is surrounded by the , with the to its east, the to its south and the to its south-south-west, giving it the 12th-longest coastline in the world and he lies between Great Britain and Ireland. With an area of 242,500 square kilometres (93,600 sq mi), the British Republic is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world and the 11th-largest in Europe. It is also the 21st-most populous country, with an estimated 65.1 million inhabitants according to 2016 estimates. Together, this makes it the fourth-most densely populated country in the European Union. The British Republic was originally a series of kingdoms on the British Isles with the most well known being the Kingdom of England. During the English Civil War, the monarchy was overthrown by the Parliamentarians lead byOliver Cromwell and established a republican commonwealth government over the former kingdom. While the monarchy was eventually restored, the republican ideals remained ingrained in the British DNA and would resurface a century later. The United Kingdom was then established and formed an empire sometime around the 18th century and began colonizing large parts of the world. Following the disastrous British defeat during the North American Revolutionary War, the kingdom was bankrupt from the war which caused many lower-class peasant citizens to revolt and overthrow the monarchy in the British Revolution by 1792. The monarchy was replaced with a republic making it one of the first republics in modern history next to the French Republic across the sea. The First Republic lasted from 1792 until 1806 when the First French Empire invaded and conquered the nation, but later broke away in 1813 in the war of independence. Afterwards, the British Republic established a colonial union like the one in France after the Berlin Conference and colonized large portions of Africa and Asia, making it one of the largest colonial empires in human history. After tensions broke out in Europe over Germany and its allies, World War I had began and the British fought alongside the allies and eventually won. The British Republic supported the Weimar Republic during the German Revolutions in 1918-19. After Hitler rose to power, the British mainland came under threat and the republic fought alongside the Allied Powers to bring an end to the fascist state and succeeded by 1945. Since the end of World War II, the British Republic has been a major regional power and a major influential player in world affairs. It currently has the fifth largest economy in the world and ranks 16th in the Human Development Index and is home to some of the most iconic landmarks in human history and is a major ally to the United States of North America and a contributing member in the European Union. Etymology The word "Britain" comes from the Latin word Britannia~Brittania, via Old French Bretaigne and Middle English Breteyne, and possibly influenced by Old English Bryten(long), and probably also from Latin. An early written reference of the British Isles originates from the Greek explorer Pytheas of Massalia and later Diodorus of Sicily and Strabo who quote Pytheas' use of variants such as Prettanikē, "The Britannic island", and nesoi Brettaniai, "Britannic islands", with "Pretani" being a Celtic word that probably means "the painted ones" or "the tattooed folk", referring to body decoration. The modern Welsh name for the island is (Ynys) Prydain and This demonstrates that the original Common Brittonic form had initial P- not B- (which would give **Brydain) and -t- not -tt- (else **Prythain). History Before 1649 The settlement of anatomically modern humans of what would become Britain occurred in waves beginning around 30,000 years ago. By the end of the region's prehistoric period, the population is thought to have belonged to a culture termed Insular Celtic which comprised Brythonic Britain and Gaelic Ireland. Following the Roman conquest of Britain in 43 AD and the 400 year rule of southern Britain, was later followed by the invasion of Germanic Anglo-Saxon settlers which reduced the Brythonic area mainly to what was to become Wales and the historic Kingdom of Strathclyde. Most of the region settled by the Anglo-Saxons became unified as the Kingdom of England in the 10th century, meanwhile the Gaelic-speakers of north-western Britain united with the Pics to create the Kingdom of Scotland in the 9th century. The Normans and their Breton allies invaded England in 1066 from northern France after successfully conquering the region. The invaders sieged control over large parts of Wales, conquered much of Ireland, and were even invited into Scotland to settle in the region itself and brought feudalism to all of the countries that they conquered and brought the Norman-French culture along with them, though they did eventually assimilate with the culture of the other regions that were successfully conquered. The subsequent medieval-era English kings had completed the conquest of Wales and made an unsuccessful attempt to annex Scotland. Following the Declaration of Arbroath, Scotland had maintained its independence, albeit in near-constant conflict with England and the English monarchs, through inheritance of substantial territories in France and claims to the French crown, were also heavily involved in conflicts in France, most notably the Hundred Years War, while the Kings of Scots were in an alliance with the French during this period. The early modern period saw religious conflict erupt resulting from the Protestant Reformation and the introduction of Protestant state churches in each country. Wales was fully incorporated into the Kingdom of England, and Ireland was constituted as a kingdom in personal union with the English crown. In what was to become Northern Ireland, the lands of the independent Catholic Gaelic nobility were confiscated and given to Protestant settlers from England and Scotland down south. Commonwealths of England In the mid-17the century, England had fallen into a series of conflicts and the eventual outbreak of the English Civil War on August 22nd, 1642. The war saw the Parliamentarians, lead by Oliver Cromwell, fight against the royalists from 1642 until 1651 when the monarchies were overthrown and replaced with a unitary republic known as the Commonwealth of England. The first commonwealth had encompassed England and Ireland while Scotland remained an independent state from its establishment in 1649 until 1653 with the signing of the Instrument of Government that same year. The Commonwealth later expanded to include Scotland in 1653 during a period known as the Protectorate from 1653 until 1659 and later the establishment of the Second Commonwealth known as the Commonwealth of England, Scotland, and Ireland from 1659 until 1660 with the official disestablishment of the commonwealth in the Declaration of Breda and the three states broke up into three independent kingdoms, though Neo-Cromwell though persisted throughout the period. United Kingdom Kingdom of Great Britain From 1660 until 1701, the three kingdoms remained independent until a series of wars and conflicts lead England, Scotland, and Wales to join together in a single union known as the Acts of Union of 1701 and officially merged to create the Kingdom of Great Britain. Anne, the English monarch, took over as the monarch of Great Britain and ruled it from 1707 until her death in 1714. Under her reign, she established the Empire of Great Britain, often known as the British Empire, and claimed all oversees holdings of the previous Kingdom of England as colonies of the new empire and claimed full jurisdiction over them. Scotland would be integrated and annexed into Great Britain and Ireland was put under intensive British influence, but it wouldn't be fully annexed until the start of the 19th Century. The new British Empire soon began expanding across the seas and soon found themselves landing in the new world and began establishing settlements and colonies on the east coast of the North American continent. The new colonies would be known as British America and expanded from the East and Central parts of the North American mainland all the way up to modern day Quebec and its surrounding regions. Britain remained free from conflicts up until the where it the empire with its colonies and allies went to war against the rival states of the Kingdom of France, the Holy Roman Empire, the Russian Empire and other rival states. The war was fought in Europe, but expanded to the Americas, Asia, and Africa. The war ended with pre-war conditions being returned, but the British managed to acquire new lands from both France and Spain after the war and grew their influence over the Americas. The native indigenous tribes and population would prove to be an issue in the years following the end of the war as well as the immigration of former French and Spanish colonists out of the colonies the British gained in the war, but both issues were eventually solved and British America was stabilized and grew in the years following the war's end. North American Revolution During the 1760s and 1770s, many of the colonial citizens of the British Colonies had began to find themselves alienated and detached from the royal government in London across the pond. The British Parliament had been taxing the colonists at an alarming rate and the slow economic development of the colonies made the high tax rates unsustainable for the colonists and relations deteriorated from careless neglect to outright revolt when many of the intellectuals and public figures of the colonies formed a new constitution and declared themselves independent from the British Empire. This lead to the outbreak of the North American Revolutionary War in 1775 which ended in 1783 with a decisive victory for the North American revolutionaries and the establishment of the United Republic of North America by the end of the war. Revolution and Collapse Following the end of the North American Revolutionary War, the British Empire had seen a loss of its North American territories and all of the natural advantages and assets that they held. The natural resources and financial revenue from the colonies was instrumental in supporting the empire as the other colonies were unable to properly supply the empire and it found itself financially strained surpassing revolts in many of the other colonies. The successful revolt in North America lead to the British government becoming heavily strained financially and the general public felt the most of it as the public was highly taxed to support the war against the revolutionaries. The failure of the monarchy to lead the British to victory in North America and its abuse of the general public lead to a resurgence of Neo-Cromwellian Thought and eventually, the idea of republicanism began to surge among the lower classes of Britain. By 1787, Neo-Cromwellian politicians and officials, such as Winfield Oakden of Plymouth, began mobilizing the oppressed classes of Britain and began advocating for the restoration of the Commonwealth and for a new republican system of government. The British government however, cracked down on Oakden and his associates and followers sparking the British Revolution by the end of the year. The revolution was fought across southern England and the climatic battle was fought outside of London in the Battle of the Hills by 1790. The battle saw British republican militants fight against the British Royal Army in the outskirts of London and the victor would have a clear path to the city and the king himself. The battle went on for three months and ended when the Royal Army was defeated and was overrun by the republicans and were forced to retreat to London which as embroiled in riot and revolt from republican sympathizers. As London defended into chaos, the city was laid siege to by the Republican Army and emerged victorious in the Siege of London in 1791. By the end of the siege, London had fallen to the republicans and King George II and the royal family were forced into exile and fled to Sweden which granted them full asylum. With the royal family gone, the last pockets of the Royal Army fell and surrendered by April of 1792 and the First British Republic was established that same month. Geography Politics Politics of the British Republic The British Republic is a unitary state with a parliamentary republican system of government according to the current draft of the constitution in 1973. Government powers are divided into three separate branches; legislative, executive, and judiciary powers. The President of the Republic is the head of state of Britain and is permitted to serve a maximum of two terms in office with the post being renewable only once. The president is the commander in chief of the nation's armed forces, is tasked with appointing a new prime minister with the consent of the parliament, is the head of the nation's cabinet, and exercises executive authority, but holds some influence on foreign policy. The Prime Minister is the head of government, who has four deputy prime ministers and 16 ministers in charge of particular sectors of activity in the cabinet. As the executive branch, the office is responsible for proposing legislation and a budget, executing the laws, and guiding the foreign and internal policies of the republic. The legislative body of Britain is the nation's parliament which is overseen by the President of the Parliament. The parliament is the bicameral legislative body of the British Republic and is charge of managing and imposing existing and new laws onto the country if they are approved of. The Prime Minister often goes to the parliament for domestic policies and uses the president as a means of seeking to change, impose, alter, or remove already existing or new laws. The British Republic is a multi-party democracy and has six political parties within the parliament with the largest and most influential being the Conservative and Labour Parties. Economy Demographics Culture Category:Countries Category:Nations Category:Europe Category:British Republic